Method of making horny nitrocellulose bodies.



plosive power and can so lower the freezing No Drawing.

UNITED. STATES PATENT onn on vEz'Io VENDER, on MIL-AN, ITALY.

METHOD OF ,MAKING HORNY NITBOCELLULOSE BODIES.

Specification of Letters Eatent.

Patented Jan. 11,1910.

To all tvhom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VEZIO VENDER, chem-- of plastic horny constitution and of great.

permanency, and with a low explosive temperature.

- By nitrating acetins which are basic with orinary nitrosulfuric acid for making n-i- -troglycerin there is obtained, a very poor yield of nitroglycerin which contains little nitraeetin It has been found that the sulfuric acid. of the acid mixture separates acetyl, and that on the other hand a good yield of pure nitracetin can be obtained by nitrating the basic acetin with nitric acid furic acid containing more nitric acid than sulfuric acid, and that a good yield of mixtures of nitracetin and intro-glycerin can be -obtained' by nitrating acetin glycerin mixtures, if acid mixtures be employed containing as muchmore nitric acid than sulfuric acid as there is acetin in proportion to glycerin. With the thus obtained (not yet described) pure nitraoetin some valuable properties have been discovered, and important technical progress attained; it has been found that nitracetin more particularly dinitracetin does not freeze even at very low temperatures, and that the same is the casev with its mixtures with nitroglycerin; that nitracetinsare .extremely nonsusceptible to heat and shock, and that it is impossible to cause it to explode or ignite by means of a hammer or by striking iron against iron, and that it is so .great a solvent for guncotton that, even when cold, gun-cotton of 13.4% N maybe gelatined and that it possesses as great an explosive power 'but a; lower explosion temperature than nitroglycerin. In similar manner to nitracetin the hitherto unknown .nitroformins are obtained by nitrating formin, and it has been found that these nitroformins have great expoint of nitroglycerin that a mixture of about 25% dinitroformin with nitroglycerin Application filed December 8 1906. Serial No. 346,961.

[regarded as absolutely necessary in explosives and smokeless powder, but the plast'ic horny substances hitherto employed have the drawback of freezing at a temperature below 10 C. losing their valuable properties while being slow of ignition and very dan- Now this invention relates to the for making plastic horny explosives with the object of retaining their plastic horny condition at the low temperatures whichare met with in ractice, in other words for making practically unfreezable explosives.

The use of acetin and nitracetin is preferable 1f the property of dissolving nitrocellulose in a great degree is required. It is thus possible to make practically unfreezable smokeless powder having a very low explosion temperature with gun-cotton of 13.4% N, and dinitracetin, without the use of other solvents or gelatinizing. substances. of morethan 65% NO H or with nitro-sul- Dinitroformin does not possess particular gelatinizing properties for nitrocellulose, but ll'i, has great explosive power, and it is thus very well adapted for making unfreezable explosivesof great power, for instance for producing gelatin dynamite rendered unreezable by the addition of nitroformin. The use of acetin, nitracetin, formin, nitro formin for lowerin the freezing point of nitroglycerin explosives, or making unfreezable explosives without nitroglycerin, affords special technical advantages over other processes proposed for the same object; they.

.are not volatlle substances, are very permanent, do not contain chlorin and are easily made, and the property of dinitracetin of easily gelatinizing gun-cotton allows of the production of horny, smokeless, unfreezable, powder having a low explosion temperature, which is not possible with the other substances proposed, as these attack metals or are volatile or hygroscopic, or are not sufficiently gelatinizing, or produce a high explosion temperature. It has also been found 100 thatif acetin soluble in water be employed as gelatinizing substance for nitrocellulose, 'it is possible to employ this acetin as an aqueous solution (if afterward the water be I soluble in water, yielding horny substances of the original (that is'the important) form.

' evaporated) in order to produce the gelatin- 5 be obtained, as gelatinizing substances are easily homogeneously diffused as aqueous so- 'lution (not emulsion); also bywthe use of these gelatinizing substances soluble in water;

an easy removal and recovery of the gelati-v nizing substances (acetin) is possible even if the bodies possess great density, without danger of inflammabihty or injury to health. The process will now be more particularly explained in connection with the following examples 2- I I Example I: 160 kgs. of wet nitrocellulose (or 100 kgs. of dry nitrocellulose) are moistened, saturated or kneaded with a solution of 60 kgs. of acetin in 100 kgs. of water, a

paste is formed, and then the water is evaporated; the remainingacetin gelatinizes the nitrocellulose. A

' Example II: The bodies obtained by gelatinizing nitrocellulose with acetin soluble "in water, for instance in the manner described in the preceding example, and in a granular, thread-like or other appropriate form, are washed with warm water. The water easily removes the acetin, and horny bodies of nitrocellulose are obtained in the original form of grains or threads.

, Example III: 200- kgs. of wet nitrocellulose (100 kgs. of dry" nitrocellulose) are formed by, the usual methods in grains, and these are moistened or saturated with a solution of 30 kgs. of mono-acetin in 30kgs. of

water. The soft wet grains are now dried:

and the remaining concentrated acetins ge latinize the nitrocellulose. The grains thus gelatinized are washed with warm water which removes the acct-in. Horny grains of nitrocellulose are obtained, making a very good smokeless-powder.

I claim'as my invention:

1. A method of making I horny nitrocellu lose bodies of determinate form whicl1 con'- sists in gelatinizing nitrocellulose bodies of the desired form with acetin solublein'wa-ter, and subsequently treating the substances with. an aqueous fluid'for the purpose of removing and. recovering the gelatinizin substance.

2. A method of making exp osives of the class described consisting in incorporating an aqueous solution of acetin as a gelatinizing agent, with nitrocellulose, evaporating the water'from the solution to effect a gelatini zing. action, and subsequently treating the substances with an aqueous fluid for the purpose of removing and recovering the gelatiniz ing substance.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

VEZIO VEND R.

Witnessesz B. CARLOSALVfiTI, 'M. SIERSELORFER, Jr. 

